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It is enough!

There on that lane — in the aftermath of a day — filled with — ritual — poetry —my beloved — good friends — and good food — I shouted my thanks to the Universe! — It would have been enough.

Sunday was a day of completion for me, but also of high notes. I read poetry with My Beloved Drummer and we rocked the house. I did a farewell service for dear members who are leaving the congregation and everyone did amazing things and the service worked. It had been an enormous push to get ready for these two events, but they were well worth the effort. I napped. I went over to a friend’s house. We ate and watched the birds do the same. And then there was that slow drive home. Catching myself noticing, I reminded myself that every day is filled with such beauty. I just have to pay attention.

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Thunder and Lightning

Today’s musing was about the majesty of summer thunderstorms. I do love them. I love the cool breeze in the midst of the hot evenings. I love the wind and the rain. It all makes me feel, as the song goes, “strangely alive.”

And yet, in my musing on my musing, I have to reflect on the changing weather patterns and the incredibly dangerous storms that are sweeping our country. In Central PA tornadoes were every 25 year occurrences. Now we’re frequently under warning. last year, 60 yards south of my brother-in-spirit’s house a tornado ripped out trees and off roofs. (and that was before the 100 year flood.) since then we’ve been on tornado watch quite a few times. So, I probably need to consider and refine my stance on greenhouse gasses and my casual consumption.

And I also remembered, only after pressing the send button, that I have a friend whose brother was struck by lightening. Everyone’s lives in that family changed in that instant. So the glory is tempered by the reality. And there’s the need always in my writing to keep pushing deeper until the essence is there and as many wounding edges as possible are removed.

When Utah Phillips was developing a story, at a certain point, he would take that story to his committee, a group of (hooray) Unitarian women, who would help him pick out the essence of what was funny and eliminate the denigrating. After a while he didn’t need them so much, because picking stuff apart stretches your awareness.

So, what’s the take away? The thrill is real. The thrilling is dangerous. The dangers seem to be increasing. And the dangerous really is dangerous and can change lives in a heartbeat.  And the poet needs to keep stretching the gift…

What Fear May and May Not Be.

“Fear is not a betrayal of faith. It is simply a warning that risk is involved.” My friend, Jean Benefield Pinto plucked these words out of today’s musing. As with many broad statements (and although poetry can be incredibly nuanced, in a few short lines, you’re likely to be guilty of some hyperbole!), there’s a lot more to be said about fear.

Our world abounds with unhealthy fear that is sold to us by advertising and newspapers. Fear sells, it seems, far better than joy. And so we see story after story and post after post that give us reasons to be afraid. Too many of us are afraid of too many things — and many of them things that are not real in our lives. When we’re constantly afraid, we should talk to someone about that. And, let me point out, there’s no reason to be afraid about talking to someone!

But fear has a purpose in our lives. It is there to serve as a warning. We’re supposed to pay attention. This musing was inspired by an earlier musing I wrote about telling the truth. Driving to work that Sunday, I realized that I was lying to myself about something important in my life. I was lying because looking at the truth was terrifying. Until I could admit the terror, I couldn’t face the problem and take steps to move along toward a solution. The problem’s not solved, but the anxiety is reducing because I’m working my way out.

My facing the terror and saying it out loud (which is where I process) before there were any solutions caused consternation among friends. But I didn’t need a change of attitude. I needed a different goal and some different ways of doing things. None of those things were going to happen before I allowed myself to say… Oops! Fear. Because after all, I’m the Priestess, I’m supposed to have it all together, eh? Right. not so much.

Looking at Life from the Top of the Hill

I realized yesterday after I sent out my Musing for the Day, that I had been writing consistently for a half a year. I find it amazing… and I am having so much fun. I love when you write to let me know you’re enjoying them, or what you’re thinking about. Often your responses inspire new reflections.

But having reached a summit of some sort, I am looking around a bit. I realize that I want to make some adjustments to the process. I’m hearing from some of you that although you LOVE (and how could you NOT?) the pic of me in my acolyte cell in the mountain, the format makes it difficult to see on smart phones and smaller format screens. Mr. Web Guru and I are consulting.

I’m also posting about the musing on the Sacred Village facebook site, inviting you to comment on your responses to the posting or your reflections, so if you haven’t liked SV, please do — and please chime in!

and starting to day, I’m going to work at reflecting a bit more deeply about the musing on this site. So, if you want more, come visit, or subscribe to my rss.

Thanks for reading!

Making it different

Just like that, lives can be changed.

Little Anthony has some developmental disabilities. Among them, he needs a hearing aid. But once he started reading comics, he decided that he didn’t want to wear his aid because no super-heroes wear them. Distraught, having tried lots of other things, his Mom wrote to Marvel and said, “help!” They responded by creating Blue Ear a new Super Hero with hearing loss. Now Anthony can pursue his dream of helping people and hear what’s going on around him.

Here are people with a lot of influence, but who with a small act of kindness changed the life of not only this little boy, but of a lot of kids out there with special needs. You know they’ll think differently about their Super Heroes and how they’ll do good forever. Go watch this video! And smile!

And then keep thinking about how you might make a difference!

Saying No to the Naysayers!

I don’t know whether or not you’ve watched the hateful anti-gay rhetoric that has recently come out of the mouths of at least 2 ministers from North Carolina. But it’s been shocking and violent. Neither the Rev. Charles Worley and the Rev. Sean Harris have been content to dismiss homosexuality as wrong, but have each found brutal solutions to “ending the scourge of homosexuality.” They are so misguided.

But responding to that hate with hate is not helpful, neither to the cause nor to our calm. So, I think you’ll all agree that this blogger’s response is fabulous. The Rev. Mark Sandlin suggests that we make donations to gay friendly causes in his name and to include his address so that they can mail him letters of thanksgiving for his generosity. It’s a fairly ingenious response. You can read his column here. You can pray for the ministers and their followers any time. May their hearts be turned from hatred and violence.

One Million Bones, ThinkPeace Workshops and my Poetry, Oh, MY!

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Kelly messaged me on Friday afternoon. I was taking a nap. I’d just brought my sister home from the hospital where she’d had her second knee replacement. She was on the exercise machine. It seemed a good time on a dreary Friday afternoon to indulge myself. Nothing sweeter.

But Kelly was frustrated. She and her girls from ThinkPeace Workshops were organizing an art installation in Albany to honor the countless dead from violence and wars. She had wanted the girls to read poetry, but couldn’t find anything that wasn’t violent or saccharine. Did I have any suggestions…

Although I’m writing more and more poetry, I’m actually not very well versed in the canon, so I started thinking… and then I started writing. girls, peace, girls, peace, girls, peace… I soon had 6 connected poems, peace and girls are actually things I think a lot about, even more since Kelly and Liz have entered my life via Facebook. So I sent off what I’d written.

Saturday came and went. and then Sunday I heard from Kelly that they’d read the poems and they’d worked. Then I heard from a woman in Sacramento. She and her daughter read the poems and they worked. I was/am ecstatic. Then Kelly posted on her Thinkpeaceworkshop blog:  Go read the fabulous story about their participation in the One Million Bones project. And she posted my poetry. I’m so grateful to have been able to support this project, these women, these girls. And Peace. Anything we can do for Peace.

Check this out. It’s called Bearing Witness.

One Small, but Important Step for Released Prisoners

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Earlier this month, with the Susquehanna Valley Leadership Program I’m taking we went to visit the Medium Security Unit at Allenwood PA. If you’ve never visited a prison, you should. It’s a visceral experience you won’t forget. Once the door clangs shut behind you, and you look around, you receive a lot of rapid fire visual information about who is tried and sentenced in this country.

As state and federal budgets are squeezed, there’s less and less money for helping classes in the prisons that will help inmates find legitimate jobs on the outside and fewer and fewer resources outside. (And of course, if our returning veterans and their spouses are having a hard time having jobs, people with felony records will not be in the running. Without legitimate jobs, they will return to former lifestyles. There was a recent sad, sad case in our area, a recently released prisoner, elderly with health issues and no work skills, was living in his car. When United Way folk stopped to talk to him about finding him housing, he just wanted to go “home to prison.” He didn’t know how to function in this world.)

Enter Center for Employment Operations (C.E.O.). They’re doing great work, helping former prisoners develop skills that will help them in the outside world. Sadly, it’s one program. But the more we read about these things, talk about them, support them, the better the odds for their continued existence and for copy-cats to spring up. In the coming times, I believe we’re the ones who will have to step up and provide solutions. It’s great to have good models. In addition to C.E.O, I suggest you follow The NY Times’ column Fixes. Every week on Friday, they report on things that are working in our world. That’s a column this Priestess can whole-heartedly endorse!

Thinkpeace Workshops

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Ok, it’s true. I’ve fallen in love. Kelly Himsl Arthur and Liz Overhuel Curry put their heads and hearts together and came up with a dream they could live into. Thinkpeace Workshops for girls is an extraordinary imagining. They have a one week camp for 14 girls (6th-11th grades), teach them about peace and introduce them to the Global Girls Community. The girls swim and do art and all the other cool camp things. And then they explore Peace. It’s crazy wonderful. They have a fabulous project they’re running to gather 5,000 pairs of underwear for women in Haiti and Zimbabwe. (undergird the movement, Ladies!) You want to know about this (if only because it makes you feel good.) You want to promote it to every little girl child you know. And you want to start banging your spoon on the table along with me and whining, “why don’t you have one for old girls?” (It’s true, we’re holding out for aerobeds and airconditioners, but hey! we’re old!). Here they are folks, giving peace a chance. Jes’ sayin’! go read every single page on their site. Kelly and Liz, hallelu! And thank you so much!

A Simple Message of Peace and Love

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There has been a lot of noise about Iran and Israel, the threat of nuclear weapons, the threat of nuclear war. Most of us have read the news and shaken our heads, unsure how to make a difference. There is so much international posturing going on. What can we do?

Well, Ronny, a graphic designer and a father in Israel, decided to try something. He made a poster and put it on his FB page. It was a picture of him with his daughter and said: ‘To the Iranian people — to all fathers, mothers, children, sisters and brothers — we will never bomb your country. We love you.’

People started posting. Within 24 hours posters showed up on FB that said: ‘We love you back.’

I’ve been following for days. You should be following and posting. Or post Marlo Thomas’ article about it on Huffington Post. We don’t know what will happen on the international stage. It remains frightening. But we do know that citizens of these countries are opening their arms and taking one another to their hearts. In the 70s there was that old poster that said “What if they threw a war and nobody comes?” Well, the time has come. People are trying to host a war, and everyday Iranians and Israelis are not going. The time is now. We can make a difference. Bravo, loving Iranians and Israelis. Bravo you peace makers! Thank you so much, Ronny!